I love to cook. I love my CSA (community supported agriculture).
As The Purple Cook I’ll share with you how our family uses the food we got from our CSA and other local sources. The blog will share recipes, storage tips, and stories of what happens to that food from pick up to kitchen clean up.
A CSA can be fun, adventurous, and surprising.
Follow me on twitter at @PurpleCookBlog

Eggplant:Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In one dish combine eggs and water. In a second dish combine panko and ¼ cup parmesan cheese. Dip eggplant in egg mixture; dredge in panko mixture and place slices on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake for 30 minutes, turning once and rotating baking sheets after 15 minutes.

Assembly:In a 13x9-inch glass baking dish coated with cooking spray, spoon ½ cup pasta sauce and spread around. Layer ½ eggplant slices, sprinkle with salt, and top with another ¾ cup of sauce. Spread ½ of the filling mixture and top with 1/3 of mozzarella and ¼ Provolone. Repeat this layering with the other half of the eggplant. End with 1 cup of sauce and top with 1/3 of mozzarella and ¼ cup of Provolone. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove foil top with remaining 1/3 of mozzarella and ¼ cup of Provolone. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle additional torn basil and crushed red pepper on top.

NOTE: original recipe calls for whole wheat panko. I would love to try this, I just had regular on hand. They found that the regular panko got soggy and that is why they preferred the whole wheat. I did not find this to be true.

Please send any favorites ideas or recipes for these items. I would love to include reader suggestions in my menu planning and on the blog. Contact me through the comments or e-mail me at purplecook8@gmail.com

This salad was a perfect “piece meal” for kids. When I break a dish into its pieces and give those to the kids, I call it a “piece meal”. They had a pile of pita chips (big hit) and a salad of bare cucumber and tomato. I’m hoping someday they’ll enjoy food that touches other food!

Heat oil and butter in a non-stick skillet. Add pepper slice and then crack 1 egg into each pepper ring. Cook until whites are mostly set, 2-3 minutes. Gently slip and cook 1 minute more for over easy. Remove from skillet to plate and season with salt and pepper.

NOTE: the original recipe has parmesan cheese sprinkled on the top. YUM! Wish I would have remembered.

Monday, August 23, 2010

I spent the day Saturday at our CSA farm. It was a beautiful day. It was the largest work day ever on the farm. We harvested four varieties of potatoes – baking, red, russet, and one I don’t remember. After working we ended with a potluck. I took this Tarka Dal. Tarka, according to Wikipedia is a common word in Indian cuisine used to describe the word seasoning. I wanted to use produce from the farm for the potluck, so I used poblanos, tomatoes, and cilantro from the farm to provide seasoning. So excited, it was practically gone before I got to it in the potluck line!

Blend garlic and tomatoes together with immersion blender or food processor. Add purée to the pan and stir to combine. Add turmeric, garam masala, coriander, and some water to the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Add tomato mixture to the lentils and warm through for serving. Add cilantro before serving. If serving right away, fresh cilantro will be perfect. Since I was serving this much later the frozen cubes worked just fine.

Please send any favorites ideas or recipes for these items. I would love to include reader suggestions in my menu planning and on the blog. Contact me through the comments or e-mail me at purplecook8@gmail.com

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Told the kids they were chocolate cupcakes that I had turned red, they were gone in a flash. They were so good! I’d had a terrible eating day yesterday and desperately wanted a second, but didn’t indulge. They are waiting in the fridge for dessert tonight.

Ahead of time, roast beets. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Trim stalks of the beets to ½ inch. Tightly seal beets in an aluminum foil pouch, place on baking sheet, and roast for 35 minutes. Remove pouch and allow to cool. Cool completely in the refrigerator.

When ready to bake, remove beets from foil and remove the skin. Chop the beets into ½ -1 inch cubes and puree with immersion blender. A food processor or blender would work too. You should get between ½ - ¾ cup of beet puree.

Heat oil in a skillet. Add salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper, cook 30 second to 1 minute. Add garlic slices, cook until beginning to turn golden brown. Add tomatoes. Cook with the lid on over medium heat and smash the tomatoes with a wooden spoon every so often. When you don’t really see the skins anymore take the lid off and let the sauce reduce to the consistency that suits you. Add fresh basil. Toss with pasta and top with Parmesan.

Slice the baguette and place on a baking sheet. Preheat the broiler and toast the bread for 1-2 minutes until golden brown. Rub with the whole cloves of garlic. Place the slices of mozzarella on the bread. Broil again for 1-2 minutes until nicely melted. Spread small dollops of pesto on each slice and top with diced tomato.

My 6 year old thought dinner last night was a tribute to his favorite color, red. We had food with tomatoes and beets. He wants to know when we’ll celebrate blue, his 4 year old brother’s favorite color.

Friday, August 20, 2010

My husband watched Ina Garten make this on the Food Network and said I just had to make it. We enjoyed every bite. Apparently Ina joked while making it that it has a lot of ingredients – 20 in the original recipe! Here are my thoughts on long ingredient lists, they are usually spices or items to make a sauce. This recipe was all about the sauce, which was delightful. Oh, and while the sauce had lots of ingredients they were things I had on hand, so it was pretty easy.One more thing, I read the reviews of the recipe. Some folks didn’t roast their own chicken, but used a rotisserie or leftover chicken. I think that’s a great idea!

The only changes I made were I used Curry Paste for the Asian hot chili oil, my broccoli was frozen so I boiled that to reheat it, and I used the Carmen Pepper from my CSA to replace the bells.

Oh…one more thing. This was the perfect “piece meal” for my kids. They ate roasted chicken, pasta, and broccoli. No extra cooking for me, they had a meal they liked, and my husband and I had a meal we liked. Check out more on “piece meals” in my post on CSA’s and kids.http://purplecook.blogspot.com/2010/05/csa-and-kids.html

Remember the awesome blackberry bush in my friend’s neighborhood? After the wonderful pies it occurred to me to make ice cream. It had nice tart flavor from the blackberries and finished in your mouth with a wonderful creaminess.

Combine blackberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Simmer until sugar dissolves. After sugar has dissolved allow to simmer for 10 – 12 additional minutes. Allow to cool some. Push the mixture through a fine mesh sieve. This mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. If making the ice cream right away, allow mixture to cool thoroughly.

In a mixing bowl combine the blackberry mixture, heavy cream, whole milk, and sugar. Combine until well blended.

Add mixture to ice cream maker and follow manufacturer instructions. I suggest putting into the maker for 25 minutes.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The verdict on this dish was, KEEPER! I was nervous putting a jalapeno, curry paste, and chili powder on the potatoes – I thought it was too much heat. BUT, between the garden fresh tomato I crushed and sugar the flavors blend beautifully.

Boil the potatoes until tender, about 20 minutes.In a large skillet, heat the oil on medium-high heat and add the potatoes, cook 4-5 minutes until they begin to brown.To the skillet add the tomatoes, jalapeno, paprika, curry paste, chili powder, sugar and salt. Cook 5 minutes.Add the peas and cook another 5 minutes.

My husband waits all year for the tomatoes from the CSA, or the garden, or some other local source for Gazpacho. We scored 5 gigantic tomatoes from a friend’s garden and we made Gazpacho. YEAH for tomatoes!

I don’t have a recipe with amounts for Gazpacho. I just make it by putting in the blender or food processor the following ingredients. I make sure that tomatoes and cucumbers are the most abundant and do everything else to taste. We find the blender makes it more liquid and the food processor provides a little more chunkiness to the soup. The avocado is the secret to the Gazpacho so loved in our home.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

My husband says, “Did you get a whole lot of eggplant this week?” Actually, yes I got a really big eggplant in my CSA with which I was able to make the Afghan Eggplant TH night and the Spaghetti F night. He must remember, I LOVE eggplant! For dessert I made Blackberry Ice Cream – I’ll post that recipe separately.

Grill the eggplant slices 5 minutes per side. Allow to cool and then dice.(Pardon the interruption - Since I’d cut the eggplant the night before I did this step on the Foreman while I cooked TH night’s dinner. I saved the slices in the refrigerator and then making this dinner was quick and easy. If you’ve got the grill on one night, slice up the eggplant, grill it, and save it for another day. Works great!)

Meanwhile, boil the spaghetti according to the package directions. Reserve the pasta water.

Heat the oil in a skillet. Soften the tomatoes and jalapeno for 5-6 minutes. Add the eggplant for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in the ricotta until it melts. Add pasta water by the ladle until the sauce is the consistency you prefer. Add the basil.

Mix together the pasta and the sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan for serving.

Please send any favorites ideas or recipes for these items. I would love to include reader suggestions in my menu planning and on the blog. Contact me through the comments or e-mail me at purplecook8@gmail.com

Slice the eggplant into ½ inch thick slices. Lay on an oiled roasting pan and brush with the side facing up with more oil. Roast in a 425 degree oven for 10 – 12 minutes, just until they start to turn tender. Let the eggplant cool and reserve.

Meanwhile, in a skillet heat the oil and butter on medium-low heat. Sauté the onion and peppers until slightly caramelized. If using a jalapeno cook those with the pepper and onion. If using red pepper flakes add those when the peppers and onions are slightly caramelized. Remove the onion mixture from the skillet and reserve.

You are going to make stacks with the eggplant and onion. With the heat off in the skillet put down 3 – 4 of your eggplant slices. Put a spoonful of onion mixture on each, layer another eggplant slice and spoonful of onion mixture on each until you have used all your eggplant slices. End with an eggplant slice on top. Pour the chopped tomatoes with their juices around the stacks.

Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, then remove cover and simmer another 5 minutes to reduce the sauce.

While the eggplant simmers combine the yogurt and the garlic. Salt the mixture to taste. Save in the refrigerator.

When the eggplant is done carefully transfer the stacks and some of the tomato mixture to a plate. Serve with a dollop of the yogurt sauce.

NOTE: The original recipe calls for frying the eggplant. I choose to roast it in the oven because it is less time consuming and the eggplant soaks up less oil. My friend has fried the eggplant and says it makes it just a tiny bit better, but not so much better it’s worth the time to fry the eggplant in batches. I’m also really bad about salting eggplant to pull out the water. I don’t find it makes much difference. The original recipe calls for this process.

Arrange tomatoes in one layer on baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Roast tomatoes in middle of oven 15 minutes, or until edges are browned, and cool.While tomatoes are roasting cook beans in salted boiling water 3 minutes, or until crisp-tender. In a colander drain beans and rinse under cold water until cool. Drain beans and pat dry.In a bowl whisk together juices, zest, mustard, oil, shallot, and salt and pepper to taste.Reserve 5 or 6 roasted tomato slices. Toss the green beans, remaining tomatoes and dressing together. Arrange reserved slices on the top of the salad.

NOTE: the original recipe uses orange zest, but we prefer lemon over orange. Also, the original recipe puts the greens beans and tomatoes over mixed greens. Since I was taking it to the lake I treated it much more as a green bean salad.

I’m also going planning to make a Soba Noodle recipe in Everyday Food J/A 2010. They suggest grilling shrimp or chicken and serving those with the noodles and any number of vegetable toppings and an orange dipping sauce. I thought this would work well for when there is a little bit of this and a little bit of that leftover.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Yesterday, I felt like I never had a good plan for the day. By 4pm we were so hot we packed up and headed for the pool where we stayed well past 6pm with no plan for dinner – the no plan for dinner part is very unlike me. When we got home I was glad I had hard boiled some eggs and remembered bread at the store. The kids were thrilled with the eggs, toast, and some cherry tomatoes. I wanted just a little more for dinner and have had these bundles on my mind, didn’t think they could take too long – so I went for it. They were a quick, tasty side dish. Lo and Behold I’ve also found a way my husband thinks chard has value. I love chard, him - not so much.

NPR had a great story about Meatless Monday yesterday. They pointed out how after a weekend of fun and indulgence, Monday is often a good time to look again at our habits. They cover the health benefits and the sustainability issues that Meatless Monday tries to promote. They also discuss wanting Meatless Monday to be for everyone – and not just an elitist issue. Finally, they talk with a representative of the meat industry to round out the story. Check it out.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129025298&sc=emaf

Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add one leaf at a time to boiling water, and blanch for 10 seconds. Place each leaf in ice bath to cool. Transfer to prepared baking sheet to drain.

Place a blanched leaf facedown on work surface. Cut out thickest part of stalk to about 1/3 the length of the leaf. Place a slice of tomato in center of leaf; top with a slice of cheese. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle with oil. Fold bottom of leaf over contents. Fold in sides. Fold leaf over to completely enclose contents. Repeat with remaining leaves, tomatoes, and mozzarella.

NOTE: the directions are the original. My folding process was whatever happened, and not so precise. I prefer crushed red pepper, but salt and fresh ground pepper would be great too.

I saved the picture till the end because they weren’t very pretty, but I think a picture of how the food turned out is important. They didn’t have a picture with the original recipe, or I’d have sent you there. The nice drizzling effect of the cheese, yeah that just happened as I moved the bundle from the grill to the plate.

Monday, August 9, 2010

We had a Local Produce Party. I was inspired by the idea of a Cookbook Party – this is where you pick a particular cookbook and assign your guests recipes from the cookbook. A Local Produce Party is when you have a few friends over and ask them to bring dishes made with local produce. My guests were CSA members, avid gardeners, and frequent Farmer’s Market shoppers. My guests brought dishes made from recipes I assigned, dishes made from an assigned vegetable, and dishes they made from their own favorite recipes.

Below is the complete menu with links to the recipes and pictures of the event.

We started the Local Produce Party off with this soup. We took our first bites and the oohs and ahhs began. We came to find out that the soup is pretty labor intensive. It was suggested it would be a great soup to make if you had some leftover corn, peppers and tomatoes from the grill. Perfect soup for an immersion blender, saves the back and forth to the blender to purée.

Interesting salad! The texture of the room temperature eggplant on the mixed greens worked nicely. Dressing it with the vinaigrette was important. The recipe also suggested serving the eggplant on rice as another alternative.

Heat oil and fry eggplant over medium heat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the spices and salt over the eggplant and fry for another 1-2 minutes. Add lemon juice and stock, cover. Turn heat down to low and cook gently stirring occasionally, 20 – 25 minutes or until eggplant is completely tender.

Warm or cold this eggplant is delicious on a bed of mixed greens tossed with vinaigrette.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, spread bread in a single layer and bake until drink and golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine tomatoes, onion, vinegar, and oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add toasted bread and basil, toss to combine. Let sit 20-30 minutes to allow bread to soak up liquid. Top with dollops of ricotta and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

In a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, melt 2 T of the butter over medium heat; swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the shallots, cover. Reduce the heat to medium-low cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 15 – 20 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the green beans until fork-tender, 4-6 minutes. Drain; return to the pot. Toss with the remaining T of butter. Season with salt and pepper.

Transfer the green beans to a serving dish; top with the caramelized shallots.

What is better than chard with pasta? One of my all-time favorites. My friend has been making this dish for her family all summer and wanted to share it. She suggested up to a cup of cheese and up to 4 cups of noodles makes it go over better with the kids. An aversion to whole wheat noodles??? You couldn’t even tell!

Mac and Cheese with Beans and GreensA recipe from my friends’ friend, which we think was from Cooking Light

We even got some local produce into the drinks at the party. The basil made the lemonade special, still a cool and refreshing drink with an extra little twist. My friend said it wasn’t hard to make – so make it anytime for a little something special. She didn’t have the purple basil, but the basil from her garden worked great. She also doubled the recipe, and 10 of us at the party were each able to have a glass.

No. 2 is perfect for saving in the freezer. The recipe has you make the filling and freeze it in the shape of your pie pan (I just love that). The filling takes 20 minutes to put together and nothing on the stove. You bake it from frozen for over an hour – perfect for those cold days when you need a memory of summer.

The original recipe is for blueberries. I’ve made it the original several times and people rave about it. The only substitutions I made for pie No. 2 were using blackberries and lemon juice (original calls for orange juice).

What could be better than baking with peaches that are right in season? My friend said this recipe was VERY easy and she liked how it turned out. She is going to try it again with other fruits. The recipe utilizes the sugars in the fruit, there is not much sugar added in.

I enjoyed my soup last night. When I read the recipe I thought putting the corn in was unnecessary, I was wrong! Just like the original recipe says – it adds a nice sweetness. The suggested add-ins were lemon and ginger. I didn’t add ginger after tasting the original blend because I liked it so much. You can see the small wedge of lemon in the bowl – I tried a little in one section – I would also pass on the lemon. Basically, with the cucumber, avocado, and corn this makes for a really simple, yummy soup. Make sure to have some nice crusty bread on hand!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Fajitas were on the menu for last night. The weather for yesterday also turned out to be a scorcher. The kids have been begging to stay at the pool till it closes (6:45pm), so I switched up the menu just a bit to have Fajitas pool side.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

My friend’s neighbor has this fantastic blackberry bush. I brought home at least 10 cups of blackberries the other day. From that, I’m going to make two different pies using two different methods. Blackberry Pie No. 2 will be served on Friday night – so watch for that one. I’m hoping to go back today and get at least two more pints so I can make ice cream.

D:Add C to 3 cups of berries and place in baked crust. Serve with whipped cream.

NOTE: Next time I make this I’m going to use a slotted spoon to put the berries in the pie crust and then pour on the amount of liquid still needed. I just put the whole mixture in and had a bit of a spill – messy! I also put it in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving. This was originally for blueberries, so I’m sure it would work great with any berry.

Monday, August 2, 2010

I am part of a recipe loop – basically we share recipes via a Yahoo! Group. Many of us have CSA’s. The loop is a great way to share recipes for what we are getting a lot of, how to get our kids to eat the vegetables, and share tips and info. We shared this recipe with my aunt and uncle when they came over for lunch. They took my printed copy of the recipe home with them, I think they liked it.

My kids have been asking for pancakes in fun shapes, you know cars, animals, their names, etc. I was not succeeding. I tried cookie cutters – well they got too hot, and I had to really spray them to get the pancake out, and it created a giant mess. Then I was watching “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” one night and this guy made a pancake portrait of Guy Fieri with a restaurant style squirt bottle (classic Guy!). I thought great idea, so I got myself a squirt bottle.